PADDY FRIEL, BORN 1929, TERMON

The Archives at Bishop’s House, Letterkenny was the venue for this recording with Paddy Friel. He recalls his childhood in Termon, where his paternal blacksmithing family had lived for four generations. His great-great grandfather made pikes which were used in the 1798 Rebellion. In 1965, he began his career as an assistant to Paddy Harte T.D. and he speaks about those days. In 1973, he moved to Parnell Street where he worked as Secretary to Minister for Justice Pat Cooney. In 1977, he decided on a change of direction and moved to The Public Records Office at The Four Courts where he worked until his retirement in 1994. He remembers working initially on the records which survived after the burning of The Four Courts in 1922. He provides some fascinating details about the first detailed Census of 1851 in Ireland.